Lake Wenatchee Info

10/11/2007 3:28:00 PM

PUD fiber to be extended to Plain and Lake Wenatchee

Ian Dunn
Staff Writer

Attention, Plain/Lake Wenatchee residents. Broadband network
frequencies are coming to a corner near you.

Last week the Chelan County PUD Board of Commissioners gave the
go-ahead to extend its fiber optic network to the area in 2008.

The decision came about as part of the PUD’s plan to change directions
with its fiber buildout in the county and focus on the remote areas that
don’t have any broadband service.

“As a result of that directive (from the board), we put together a
plan to address those areas in the county that have no other broadband
service available,” said John Smith, utility services director of
engineering and technology for the PUD. “Some of the areas we looked at were
Plain, Lake Wenatchee, Entiat Valley and Blewett Pass.”

Smith said they wanted the engineers to find which area makes the most
sense for a buildout next year. That is, they wanted to know which area is
closest to existing facilities that could serve the most people.

“Basically, we wanted to know where could get the most bang for our
buck,” he said. “After some study, it looked like the best place to build
was Plain, Lake Wenatchee area where we’re going to build out the network to
around 2,500 homes and businesses next year.”

It was also decided to build to around 200 customers in the Entiat
Valley and 1,700 in other areas of the county. Smith said they would like to
get a jump on the work but would need board approval to do that.

“We actually threw out a proposal to the board to divert money from
next year’s budget to this year’s budget so we could actually do some
construction from Leavenworth to Plain before the snowfall,” he said. “If we
can do that, we can get fiber to people in Plain/Lake Wenatchee as early as
possible in 2008.”

If it is feasible to do the work this fall, Smith said they would like
to get started in the next couple weeks. He said a big obstacle to the
network buildout is routing the fiber up Chumstick Road.

“We’ve already got fiber in Leavenworth but we need to bring that to
Plain to serve those customers,” he said. “That’s a fairly long run and not
all the poles are accessible from the roadside. A lot are behind people’s
homes and on the mountainside. It creates some difficulties and challenges
on the construction side.”

The fiber line going up the Chumstick, Smith said, will serve as a
transmission and distribution cable. That means the cable will also serve
residents along Chumstick Road.

“There are some outlying canyons that won’t get hooked up in 2008,” he
said. “But they are in the plans for 2009. We’re planning to build (the
network) to 2,500 homes. There are 3,500 electric meters in the Plain/Lake
Wenatchee area. So there’s still about 1,000 homes that we won’t be getting
to until 2009.”

In general, homes in the Plain/Lake Wenatchee area are spaced fairly
far apart, a fact Smith said they have taken into consideration in terms of
the buildout.

“We knew this was going to cost more in those areas because the homes
are so spread out,” he said. “We had that money built into our model, but we
thought we’d be spending that money later.”

Some $3 million has been shifted in the budget, Smith noted, to
compensate for the additional cost of building out the sparsely populated
areas in 2008.

The timeline on the buildout to Plain/Lake Wenatchee depends largely
on what course the PUD board decides to take.

“If we get board approval to transfer the money and can get all the
permitting and get that line constructed this year, that puts us way ahead
of the ball game,” he said. “Then, we should be able to bring services to
the area by summer of 2008. If the board doesn’t approve or there’s some
construction roadblock, service to the area would likely come in the fall of
2008.”

It would appear that Plain/Lake Wenatchee residents would prefer to
have the service sooner rather than later.

“At most of the public meetings we had throughout the strategic
session, some of the most vocal people were from the Lake Wenatchee area,”
he said. “They talked to us about how important it is for them to have
broadband services there to keep up with what’s going on in the world.”

Internet, TV and telephone are currently available on the PUD’s fiber
network.

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or iand@leavenworthecho.com